The Pope has defended the traditional definition of marriage, saying it must be “promoted and defended” from changes such as allowing gay couples to marry.

Pope Benedict XVI made the comments yesterday in France where he met with 32 of the country’s bishops. The country’s recently elected president Francois Hollande has promised to make same-sex marriage legal.

“Marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself,” the Pontiff said.

He said the family, which is the foundation of society, “is threatened in many places by a faulty conception of human nature.

“Defending life and the family in society isn’t retrograde, rather it’s prophetic,” adding that the Church needed to “promote those values that permit the full development of the human person.”

“Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself.”

He continued: “The family unit is fundamental for the educational process and for the development both of individuals and states; hence there is a need for policies which promote the family and aid social cohesion and dialogue.”

In 2010, the Pope spoke about protecting or endangering creatures including humans saying: “One such attack comes from laws or proposals which, in the name of fighting discrimination, strike at the biological basis of the difference between the sexes.”

PinkNews covers religion, politics, entertainment, finance, and community news for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in the UK and worldwide. Founded to produce broadsheet quality journalism for the LGBT community, we cover politics to theology in an intelligent manner.